Kirby and the gang had managed to cross to the other side of the light fissure, looking at the world set before them. What they saw was a drier version of the much greener forest, meaning there were fewer plants around and the sun was hotter. Right in front of them was a black, techno-styled maze with neon blue lights on the edges. There seemed to be no other way around this other than going through.
"Well, we're finally here," Fox told the gang. "It was a long and perilous journey, but we did it."
"I guess all that remains is to travel through the maze, head through the seaside town and jungle, travel through the desert and sky islands, sail the ocean, and reach the island of the Rathalos," Sheik answered. "Shouldn't be too hard, right?" Fox McCloud was ready to take a step into the techno maze before a fully-charged shot blasted right at him in a straight line.
"Fox! Look out!" Peach cried, alerting the Star Fox mercenary. Fox quickly pulled out his reflector and countered the shot, sending it back in the direction it was blasted from. The shot hit its target, and everyone seemed to be aware of their attack.
"Alright, pal!" Bowser growled, his mouth heating up with flames. "You better show yourself! We're ready for you!" Once all of the Smashers got into their battle positions, a familiar shape jumped out from behind a boulder. Following the landing, the attacker revealed itself to be the Samus Primary. Charging in behind her was a large gang of captured Brawlers and Gunners as well as more Kirby Supporters.
"Flee from the terror that is Gandrayda!" the Samus Primary snapped, revealing a magenta-colored humanoid pulsing with lightning in the image of the Master Legendary Spirit. "You weaklings better pay for setting foot on the other side!" Kirby wasted no time in hearing nothing but boastful monologue and charged straight at her, his dash attack engulfed in flames. The Samus Primary quickly got up and began struggling as Kirby grabbed her by the neck with his stubby hands. Some of the remaining magic of the Galeem Lock managed to create another vortex which sucked both Kirby and the Samus Primary in, leaving the rest of his gang to fight the possessed Mii Fighters and Kirby Supporters.
The pink puffball started to wake up, seeing that he was trapped deep underground with a lake of acid underneath the Final Destination-like stage. It was a replica of Brimstar. The Samus Primary, now coated in electricity like Gandrayda, used a dash attack on Kirby. The single hit sent Kirby falling onto his soft, squishy back.
The captured fighter was merciless in her barrage of attacks, shooting out nothing but bombs and heat-seeking missiles. Kirby could do nothing by this strong force except for using his Stone ability, which made him immobile but gave him super armor for a while. Once the Samus Primary got close enough to grab the pink demon with a grappling plasma whip, Kirby quickly transformed back to normal and sucked up the captured fighter. This allowed Samus' Fighter Spirit to enter into the body of Kirby through the Copy Ability. The pink puffball's mind went dark afterwards, and the bounty hunter took over.
Samus was now inside Kirby's body, and her signature helmet covered the pink demon's body. The possessed pink puffball began firing charged shots and missiles at the Samus Primary. Try as the captured fighter may, she could not manage to jump over the wall of explosives. It wasn't long enough before she shielded to avoid the damage. However, all the damage the projectiles were doing to the shields caused the spherical shield to shrink until it eventually shattered. With the opponent now dizzy, the possessed Kirby walked up to the captured fighter. As though the arm cannon was there regardless of there being a stubby arm, Samus' Fighter Spirit charged up a forward smash and instantly knocked out the Samus Primary.
The Shadow Bugs that had made up the background scattered and surrounded the two fighters. The Gandrayda Spirit, trying to escape from her current vessel, pulled up the blue barrier forged from the Galeem Lock. Kirby aimed carefully with the Spirit Sniper, which was fueled with Samus' real Spirit.
Back near the maze, Bowser, Peach, Pikachu, Lucario, Yoshi, Jigglypuff, Inkling, Wii Fit Trainer, Little Mac, Fox, Captain Falcon, Mii Swordfighter, Link, Villager, Sheik, and Piranha Plant were struggling against the incoming forces from the corrupted Brawlers and Gunners as well as the Kirby Supporters. Trying to hold them back with powerful punches, kicks, and projectiles, each one of the fighters was backing into the maze's entrance. Clementine noticed there were far too many of them as she kept throwing her Splat Bombs but more kept coming. She quickly grabbed Gilbert and dragged him in for safety.
"Fall back!" Gilbert the ex-Swordfighter Ultimate Reborn called out.
"But what about Kirby and Samus!?" Peach asked, pelting the troops with rotting turnips.
"There's no time!" Sheik answered, quickly grabbing Peach by the hip and helping get everyone into the maze. After all the Smashers retreated into the location, the forces sent by Galeem were about to follow them in. However, one possessed Mii Gunner stopped the marching band by throwing a flame onto the ground.
"Forget it, bubs," the corrupted male Gunner spoke. "They won't even last a day in that labyrinth, and we won't bother wasting any more of our people. Let's just leave it to Balder and the Shadow Bug Trigger…" Just like that, the captured Mii Fighters and Kirby Supporters that had survived the onslaught retreated across the light fissure bridge.
Kirby woke up to the celebrating voices of other beings, with fireworks exploding in the sky. As the pink puffball's touched the Smash Ball on his forehead once more, he saw that the streets were familiar… almost like the second time he had experienced the vision when he had rescued the Villager. It was supposedly the city of Civiltatula, though there seemed to be slightly more buildings littered with nests.
The pink alien saw the gathering crowd of dragons of all sorts of species, crowding over the large stump. Kirby had noticed a large curtains made out of stitched leaves behind the stump, and he quickly made it over there since he floated through the dragons like a ghost. When Kirby peaked through, he saw, Ultima, Galeem, and Phoenix putting on special armor when all of the other Dragosmos were ready before they came onstage. For Phoenix, he had purple armor with a gelatin-like texture. For Galeem, his neckwear and helmet ranged from neon pink to deep blue, all flowing like through like a spectrum. Ultima was wearing an outfit fit for a warrior princess, with a titanium helmet and a brass chest plate.
Ultima peaked outside, watching as the next contestants for the Dragosmo Solstice participated. There was an irregularity about the contestants since there were actually an uncommon species of conjoined dragons, with the right side of their shared body colored with a fire-red texture and the left side a water-blue. Regardless, this was quite common in the world of dragons as the two-headed Dragosmo finished with a bang of ice and fire.
"You can do this, Ultima," Ultima told herself as the crowd cheered. "This is your chance to prove you're worthy as a defender of Arcus." Galeem then approached her and placed a paw on her back. The spectrum-winged dragoness saw her two brothers behind her.
"Not like you guys would understand since we'll have our butts back in school for another ten years if we screw up since they are technically finals," Ultima answered.
"Hey, stick together till the end, remember?" Galeem asked. "Don't worry. We'll put on a show for them."
"And now," Lord Ceresor spoke out from the front of the stage, guarded by his sons Sozo and Hakai in their armor, "we are ready to announce the last three contestants to do their best and earn the title of Defenders of Arcus. Please give a handout to one of the quieter, but most powerful, Phoenix!" There was nothing but silence from the crowd, and the only people that seemed to cheer for Phoenix were Metallio and Toropikaru. Regardless, the black-armored dragon with violet wings ignored all this.
"I guess this is my cue," Phoenix said, ready to step onto the stage.
"Remember: speak with the heart. Knock them dead out there," Ultima cheered. Phoenix looked back, giving off a small smile as he knew what his sister meant. Once Phoenix walked onto the stage, he instantly knew the past week of training. After taking off into the sky like a bullet, Phoenix began his act.
Phoenix first used his claws to rip a large red "X" in the sky. The black dragon then started breathing out four violet fireballs, which each traveled to different ends of the shape. Once they had exploded, Phoenix coated his wings with electricity and began zipping around. A barrage of purple pellets became suspended in midair as Phoenix gorged many different shapes out of them. For his finishing act of dancing in the skies, Phoenix sent out projectiles of fire, earth, thunder, life, air, water, and magic and combined them into an explosion of spectacle.
After Phoenix landed on the ground, he looked at the crowd to see that they were silent this whole time. There was the occasional cough from someone in the audience, and the only people that cheered him on were the mother and father. It wasn't long until the crowd of dragons began booing and jeering for how terrible he had preformed.
"Boo! You stink!" one dragon called out while throwing an apple core at Phoenix's face. Tears began welling up in the eyes of the black dragon, and he ran back behind the stage, embarrassed. Even if he had friends, Phoenix was somehow a disappointment.
"Sorry for the inconvenience, people of Arcus," Lord Ceresor coughed. "He is still just a rookie."
"A terrible one at that!" another dragon from the audience complained. "He spent ten years in your school's care for this?"
"Let us just…move on and continue to the next contender," Ceresor answered. "Next up is the brother of our recent participant, but hopefully many times better. Here we have Galeem!"
"Wish me luck, sis," Galeem told Ultima, unaware of how heartbroken Phoenix became. The white dragon with blue-and-orange wings walked up onto the stage, and there were already thousands of dragons cheering him.
Galeem first took off into the air, moving through the sky coated in golden flames. He then began creating leaves and flowers out of thin air, with his wings flapping them towards the crowd. He then breathed out an electrical sphere of light that split into four and danced around him. Crystals also materialized out of him, with small flames emitting light out of them. The audience continued cheering for more, and Galeem continued showing off his abilities.
Kirby, as he was watching Galeem's presentation, suddenly noticed a small bubblegum-colored slime that looked nearly identical to the one Joker came across in the Sky Temple, though the pink puffball himself did not know that. The slime watched through a bush behind the stage where no one seemed to notice, but its single slit eye managed to get a good view of Galeem. Only Kirby seemed to pay attention to the slime before turning back on Ultima and Phoenix, simply regarding the hiding slime as one of the out-of-the-norm things he thought was harmless and quite random.
"I can tell things didn't go so smoothly, didn't they?" Ultima asked. Phoenix tried holding in his tears, but the heartbreak he went through only released them as they dropped from his face.
"It is not fair," Phoenix cried. "Why am I the only one to suffer? What did I do to deserve this torment?" As the crowd cheered, Phoenix peeked out from the stitched-leaves curtain to watch Galeem wow pretty much the entire city of Civiltatula with his magic acts.
For a final trick, Galeem rose into the air and did something that was never seen by dragons before. A golden aura of light was glowing right behind the white dragon, and he was levitating without the need of his wings or his Rainbolements. Galeem then opened his eyes, and there was a drastic color in them. Instead of the ordinary red eyes Galeem had all his life now existed fiery orbs with as enough color as the sun itself, gleaming golden with black markings, and a white iris surrounding each of his slit pupils was present. A shockwave blasted through the stage, and Galeem glowed with a beautiful and radiant light, with the crystals he called out before basking the crowd in rainbows.
Phoenix, for the first time, felt something spark up within him. As long as he had watched Galeem woo the crowd of dragons with his impressive new abilities to spark light, Phoenix knew he could not hold that feeling any longer. It was the feeling of jealousy of Galeem's attention, though something was… off. Whatever it was, Phoenix knew this was the last straw.
"Phoenix, don't go up there!" Ultima exclaimed, trying to hold Phoenix back with her Magic Rainbolement telekinesis ability. However, Phoenix's will was too strong to hold onto as he simply shrugged the telekinesis and stormed on stage. Ultima watched from the sidelines as Phoenix waked onto the stump, ignoring the crowd booing that he was in Galeem's spotlight. Ultima quickly ran towards Ceresor and his sons, watching the disarray take place.
Phoenix flew into the sky, gliding up to Galeem's level on the white dragon's right side. For whatever reason, the emotions took over Phoenix's mind and he allowed a darkened storm cloud to form right behind him. The black dragon opened his eyes, and what remained of those purple orbs now shone eyes that gleamed in a moon-blue color with golden irises. The dragons began panicking in fear from the storm cloud, unaware of what was going on.
"I have had just about enough of your tomfoolery!" Phoenix snarled in a harsh voice, pointing his fore claw at his own brother.
"You are ruining my limitless possibilities, Phoenix," Galeem strictly answered. "These people need me."
"They know nothing about how horrible and selfish you are!" Phoenix objected, light violet flames leaking out his mouth. "I am supposed to be the one worthy of holding all the attention, and it is because of your innocence that I always get either abandoned or spat in the face from dragons I do not know!"
"Maybe it is because of your looks, and even they disgust me," Galeem growled, golden flames heating up his mouth. "This world would probably be better without you in it." Ultima could not handle her brothers fighting over the public control, so she quickly flew up to her brothers.
"Galeem! Phoenix! Stop it this instant!" Ultima yelled, watching most of the dragons in the audience flying away.
"It is not my fault I am the one out of place!" Phoenix exclaimed, the dark storm cloud growing behind him. "You may not see it, but you are rigging my life just so you can remain in control!"
"You take that back!" Galeem snarled, the light aura glowing brighter. Ultima knew she couldn't take it anymore, so she tried to force her brothers to stop fighting.
"Stop it right now!" Ultima snapped, conjuring up special energy in her wings. The energy that spiked up appeared in a similar design to Tabuu's wings. However, during Ultima's attack from her wings, Galeem and Phoenix acted in self-defense, and the both of them struck her at the exact same time. The attack similar to Tabuu's Off-Waves preformed by Ultima was already unleashed, knocking Phoenix and Galeem back onto the ground. The dark storm cloud and the light aura had also collided to create an explosion in the air, decorating the blue sky with ashes.
Once the dust had settled, Galeem and Phoenix slowly got back up, realizing their eye color has gone back to normal. Sozo and Hakai had protected their elderly father from the encounter with their scarred wings. Ceresor then ran towards Ultima, who was lying wounded on the ground. The patterns faded from her wings. She was starting to wake up, but her own blood was in her eyes.
"Quickly," Lord Ceresor said. "Remember the powers of the Life Rainbolement." Ultima quickly placed her front paws on her face. Green light flashed from her face, and she stopped bleeding. All that remained were two claw marks struck vertically on her face where her brothers attacked her. On the right side of her face was Phoenix's mark, which gave an eerie violet glow, and the left side was Galeem's mark that was gleaming golden. The crowd members that did not flee yet were terrified by what they had seen.
"Attention, those of you that are still around," Lord Ceresor addressed, pushing a wounded Ultima up. "The Dragosmo Solstice is cancelled this year. We will take care of everything in the meantime…" Kirby, frightened, then looked at the same bush the bubblegum slime was hiding in, watching it retreat back into the forest as fast as possible, vanishing without a trace. The pink puffball's then clenched onto his forehead, in pain. The environment turned white, and the vision was over.
Kirby woke up near the entrance to the maze. The pink puffball was starting to feel himself get tapped by Samus, who quickly brought him back to his senses. The two fighters started looking around and noticed all of the defeated Mii Fighters and Kirby Supporters lying near the maze's entrance, and that none of their friends were nowhere to be found.
"Your buddies probably ran in there," Samus said, pointing towards the entrance. The suited bounty hunter started running towards the techno maze, but she suddenly felt something grab her leg. It was a red Kirby Supporter that snagged onto her leg. It tried to attack and throw her on the ground since it was technically under Galeem's control. As soon as Samus was ready to attack the Supporter, Kirby himself was starting to feel sympathy towards the enemy. The pink puffball quickly ran in front of the Kirby Supporter before Samus could even begin to attack, ready to protect.
"Poyo poyo!" Kirby said, watching the puppet fighter struggle. Because of the attacks that had mortally wounded the other troops, the red Kirby Supporter was ignored and believed to have died. For whatever reason, Kirby sensed a strong connection towards the puppet fighter and wished for it to be spared.
"He's an enemy," Samus said. "That puppet fighter tried to attack me." When the pink demon looked back on the surviving Kirby Supporter, he noticed it was trying to stand up and fight but could not since it was badly wounded. Bleeding cuts and bruises covered the Kirby Supporter, and it was starting to cry from how painful it was. In an act of mercy, Kirby spared the puppet fighter.
"Poyo," Kirby said, lifting up the red Kirby Supporter and placed his stubby arm behind the puppet fighter's back. Samus, though not understanding what Kirby was speaking in his own language, knew what the pink puffball was expressing through gestures. That Kirby Supporter did not want to die unlike any other clone of Galeem's armies, meaning it was nothing more than a coward from the seraph's eyes. The longer Samus stared at Kirby taking sympathy on the puppet fighter, the more she remembered a similar situation when she had to raise the last Metroid on her own.
"Fine," Samus sighed in annoyance. "But don't blame me when that minion kills you in your sleep." The bounty hunter then traveled through the maze, with Kirby helping the puppet fighter stand on its feet. The red Kirby Supporter did not act very trustworthy, and it looked at the pink demon with the glowing-red eyes on every clone in the Army of Light. Regardless, it needed medical help. So Kirby helped the puppet fighter through the maze, hoping to meet up with the other fighters trapped in this techno labyrinth.
